California Books

Tibetan Portrait is really what the name says - As a photographer myself I was touched by the beautiful and subtle imagens on the book. It also teaches us about the present situation of Tibet, a land which has been dominated by the Chinese since its invasion in 1949, under Mao-Tse Tung's force. It's interesting and very easy to read and understand history. The pictures are as if you were transported into time and it's hard to believe they've been shot ( sort of )recently. And it also has a quick information about the equipment the author Phil Borges used to take them. It's the sort of information a photographer is always glad to see! Finishing is great, beautiful paper with a hardcover and jacket. Great work!

I love the work Borges has givne us. It is a great display of some people in Tibet that are special in their character, soul, and appearance. His rendition of the photos in a combined B&W and slight color tint really works. His description and obvious connection with each of the subjects is strong and it comes through in his work. I liked the children especially, for despite their most difficult of circumstances, they appear hopeful and dignified. Wonderful job.

This book was sent to me by a friend overseas, and I fell in love with it the moment I opened it.
Borges' photographs capture the very essence of these proud, wonderful people, and every person I have shared it with has falled in love with it as well.

Namaste.

Phil Borges presents, through the medium of photography, a project that brings attention to the situation in Tibet. Both stylish and yet sensitive, Borges uses an extensive cross section of subjects to accomplish this. He brings to the project, like I mentioned above, an extensive cross section not just of subjects but locations as well that exemplify the phenomenal complexity and diversity in that country. An example is the portrait of Yama, which caught my eye, who could be any child in any place in the world. I might be waxing "noble savage" here but does she not deserve a childhood just like any child in the globe? With text from such notables as Nobel Peace Laureates like Elie Wiesel and His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso - the book is a sure hit and a must for every home. Not to be outdone are other contributors who themselves are "heavy hitters" in the discourse of Tibet and Tibetan issues - Robert F. Thurman and the late Galen Rowell. Phil Borges presents us with nothing less than a tour de force of visual stimulation coupled with profound text and a stylish presentation. A keeper that will stand the test of time.

Miguel Llora

Each of these faces is pure incarnation of a human feeling...from joy to worriness, from amazement to pride.Some of these people will haunt you for long after you turn the last page (See little 4 year old Pemba's eyes...) Sent the book to friends overseas...just the kind of work you want to share with your closest ones.

Please note: This book contains an error. When visiting the Koret Health & Recreation Center, the Red Pass ONLY allows you access before 2pm (Monday-Thursday) and anytime on Friday-Sunday. You can NOT attend a group exercise class if time restrictions apply.

In the City by the Bay and its surrounding other cities. Change and Restructure in the Work place is so common that Time Off from the corporate grind is expected and can be useful too. This book shows you how to make excellent use of your Time Off in between the next career adventure.

I've been reading this book while commuting to work. Yes, I wrote work! I still have one, but I have uncertainties. So I thought "Hmm this can be a good how-to book just in case in a couple of weeks I get fired or laid off. Excellent! hehehe." The book is very helpful as it suggests where to eat and shop when your tiny little checking account is about depleted. Saying that, they mentioned as well how to obtain/maintain your finances. Humor and tidbits of SF made this book a best buy. There are some websites that are no longer up, but not to worry, just email the writers for updates. Whether you're working or not, who's in a tight budget or no budget at all, this is a great book! And.. you'll be surprise of how much you don't know of SF, I don't till this book.

Yesterday was my one year anniversary of not working. I picked up this book shortly afterwards and as a result, I have to say that this last year was the best year of my life. I have to highly recommend it for the unemployed of the SF Bay Area. Not only does it provide some interesting, low-cost things to do in the City, but also (and more importantly), it addresses the psychology of unemployment. It's easy to get in a funk when you're unemployed - this book will help you see it for a chance of an excellent adventure.

Escaping unscathed from the dot-com fallout, Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea have taken a cue from Cary Grant's character in 1938's "Holiday" when he chose to take an extended period of adventurous unemployment despite pressure from his fiancée's family to accept a staid, unfulfilling job at a bank. Although they state that they have been "successfully unemployed since 2001", each has found the financial means to pursue their creative interests in order to build an ideal leisure lifestyle. Their most renowned outlet has been their "Time Off!" books, which I think are terrific, eminently readable resources for those wondering how to handle the abrupt reversal between time and money when between jobs.

I still have a ragged, used copy of the first edition which was called "The Unemployed Guide to San Francisco". The switch to "Leisure" seems quite intentional, especially since much of the text is directed to anyone in a high-stress situation. In fact, the first part of the book is devoted to the art of leisure, and it gives informative stepwise advice on managing the transition to unemployment. This section covers not only the psychological aspects, including nagging feelings of guilt and dismantling time schedules based on going to work, but also practical advice on dealing with dwindling financial resources. I particularly like how they clearly define the three phases of money management - Finance 101 for planning and budgeting, Finance 202 for paying off debt and keeping a cash reserve, and Finance 303 for getting cash in the immediate term.

By far the biggest part of the book, Part 2 is a cleverly organized guide to free or low-cost activities in San Francisco, including museums, festivals, volunteer organizations and a great matrix of the more famous coffeehouses. Granted some of the information is dated (e.g., the National Maritime Museum is closed until 2009), this was still immensely helpful to me when I was unemployed and trying to live comfortably in one of the world's most expensive cities. There is even a large section on travel and how you can reasonably journey to far-flung locales on a budget. It's inevitable that the book should end with how to manage the transition back to the job hunt and work, and the co-authors remain steadfast in ensuring you incorporate leisure even during this process. The revised book feels a bit heavier, but the graphics remain pleasing and the text relatively light-hearted. I think it's a great instructional resource for those trying to make the best of a most trying time.

As a minority faculty in the academics Frances Conley's book vividly portrays the reality of the ivory tower that, though pretentiously progressive in ideas, is way behind the iota of gender equality that exists outside the academe. I, sometimes, feel I am living in the medieval period when entering the academe.

When I first came across this book I thought this must have been written in the seventies and I could share it with my students as a historical autobiography of sexism in an academic institution. I was horrified to find that it was written in the nineties about one of the most prestigious institution in California.

I have always felt alone, alienated in the academe and of course disconnected from other women who were struggling too much to bother with the problems of their women peers. This book validated my experience and helped me understand where my alienation was coming from.

I wish this book could be a standard read for all freshman students in all universities. Only when women who appear to be in power tell their stories of powerlessness and abuse can we act collectively to stop the misogyny that exists among our men and more particularly among our elite men.

Frances Conley offers a compelling indictment of gender discrimination at Stanford Medical School, past and present, focussing on her own recent experience. I started this book at midnight and could not put it down until finishing it at 4 a.m. Conley provides case after case of medical school professors given virtually absolute and unchecked power over their subordinates and their subordinates' careers, abusing that power, and the medical school administration covering up that abuse. While she never addresses the issues of solidarity in the face of sexual harassment, her cases all indicate that when one woman protests, she loses, and only a pattern of abuse reported by multiple women leads to any punishment of the harassers at all. Conley was fortunate and grateful that 37 others came forward to support her claim that Gerald Silverberg engaged in inappropriate sexual contact and other activities counterindicating his capability for leadership. I'll be passing this book onto many women who have had the choice to be treated at Stanford Hospital and may well now rethink that choice.

Men groping women. Men coming on to women, and making incredible jackasses of themselves in the process. Men getting drunk and acting like barbarians. Men with one thing in mind. Men whose compulsion to talk about sex is so strong that they do it at highly inappropriate times in public. Men who think that pressuring women is their God-given right. If you think that what I just described is a high school football team on an overdose of steroids, you're wrong. These sexual antics weren't perpetrated by adolescents with testosterone bubbling out their ears, they were committed by male doctors at Stanford University. Not being stupid, these demigods put two and two together and realized that they could use their power to pressure women. One of these men made a fatal mistake, though: he pressured Dr. Frances Conley, a topnotch neurosurgeon and renowned researcher at Stanford. Bad move, fella. I suppose that guy never learned that if you're going to pick a fight, you don't provoke someone who can whack you back so hard you just might rethink whether it's wise to be a bully.

As publicity spread about Dr. Conley's fight, more and more women came forward to reveal their stories. This was certainly an eye-opening book. Before reading it, I'd never given much thought about the sexual harassment of women in medicine and allied healthcare fields. Perhaps we're more civilized here in Michigan, because I've never seen or heard of any such hanky-panky. Well, let me revise that last statement: I have witnessed a lot of sexual inducement, but what I saw was women chasing men not the other way around. But everyone knows that those California folks are trendsetters.

Dr. Conley never envisioned herself as a trendsetter, though. For years, she passively participated in the abuse until a concatenation of events convinced her that it was time to draw a line in the sand. To make a long story short, the men didn't believe she'd put up much of a fight, but she did, and they lost. Big time.

(...) Perhaps the most chilling message in this book is that some men in positions of power are willing to use that power to stifle the careers of women. So what is an attractive woman to assume? That if she goes into medicine her pulchritude will serve as a magnet for sexual harassment? Perhaps this abuse is, unbeknownst to me, more pervasive than I think. I suppose because most of my friends are women, I can't understand men who view women as being somehow inferior. However, you shouldn't necessarily construe from that statement that I think women physicians are as competent, on average, as male physicians. There's no doubt that some are, and there's no doubt that Dr. Conley is a superior physician, not just competent. (...) My only major criticism of the book is that it is too focused upon abuse of women by men. Since the core of this book is hinged upon some of the depredations that ensue when power is abused, I think she could have achieved a more balanced perspective by pointing out that powerful people often use their power against men, too ý not just women. I've seen male docs fight one another with such a vehemence that it made the stories in Dr. Conley's book seem as pleasant as afternoon tea and cookies with a neighbor. Consequently, while I don't intend to trivialize the unfortunate reality of the abuse Dr. Conley documents, it's important to keep in mind that this abuse is but one aspect of a much larger problem. In defense of Dr. Conley, broadening the scope of this book to include other aspects of hospital politics would have diluted the message she wished to inculcate, and it would have made for a very unwieldy book. With that in mind, I suppose I'm on shaky ground by wishing that her book had a wider focus. Her book, her demeanor, her dedication, her resolve, and her competence are commendable. Dr. Conley is a great doctor and I am happy to have met her, however indirectly, by reading this book.

Review by Kevin Pezzi, M.D.

I'm not an MD or a PhD; I don't work in a hospital or academia. Yet I too have experienced sexual harassment, and I too have consulted the EEO department that is supposed to get involved in handling these issues, and I found that they were disinterested, that they gave subtle and obvious messages that the problem was "my" problem and not the corporation's, and that they relied on my being too timid or unmotivated to initiate a lawsuit so the whole thing could be, well, ignored. Sexual harassment exists because the society permits men (even encourages men) to expect that it is their right to harass women. Not all men harass, and not all men admire harassers. In fact, it is quite the opposite, but those who possess the attitude that women who dare to compete must be put down through sexual threat or debasement will harass (they also enjoy and even need it, since these men have very real problems). Through her description of her own experiences, the author illuminates the social mechanism of harassment. She also brings to light the story that all we women know -- what it feels like to be the victim not just of a troubled person but of an organization that insists she accept the role of victim. When we are harassed, we women discover the battle we are in, not against one man but against all those societies which are founded on (this does sound harsh, I know) the hatred of women. This is a marvelous book -- hard to read at times if you've been there -- but it is important that women know what we are facing (especially our daughters, who like us may have been programmed to think that all men will be nice to us, will treat us fairly, and that if someone is abusive, it is our own fault, there is something wrong with me, etc.). Important too is having the author detail the steps she took to handle the harassment. This is a very supportive book for anyone enduring just such a situation (harassment as well as gender discrimination, which is a lot more rife and a lot less obvious). I'd recommend this to any woman who is willing to step outside of the traditional role, because we all need to know what we are up against, how the system is going to fail us, and especially all the steps we are entitled to take to combat this problem so that we change society's viewpoint and not just our own. I'd also recommend this to men, because there are many who are supportive of women in the workplace. Our husbands and boyfriends need to read this book to know how difficult it is for women, because in the end we can only effect a change if we all stand together.

Sadly, any woman who's achieved a doctorate (& not just in medicine) will relate wholeheartedly to this book. I greatly admire Dr. Conley's unbelievable courage in standing up to the Boys' Club & trying to make things better for women in academia. Hopefully this book will encourage ALL women to stand up to the misogyny & be heard.

Watcher in the Woods picks up the eerie, engrossing story begun in House of Dark Shadows, which saw the King family move from Pasadena to the small town of Pinedale when their father Edward accepts the position of principal at the high school, and into a house with a dark history. From the first page of this Christian-published young adult novel we are plunged once again into the high intensity, rapid fire setting of the first. Liparulo cuts to the chase, providing a bare minimum of exposition in the first chapters to remind readers of where the story left us at the end of book one.

This series is one that builds upon itself, adding question upon question, layer upon layer of mystery and uncertainly to the storyline, while revealing few answers. These titles do not stand-alone; each is an integral part of the story. Each book needs to be read in sequence in order to follow along.

David and Xander, the King brothers, throw themselves fool-hardily into the search for their missing mother. Frustrated by their father's lack of action they take matters into their own hands despite their father's cautious prohibitions and warnings. This rebellion against their father marks the initiating of the downward spiral of the King family into the darkness that becomes more palpable throughout this title.

The King family struggles to maintain a somewhat normal façade (with little success) when dealing with the townsfolk of Pinedale. Edward King starts his new job and the King siblings enter the school year in unfamiliar surroundings. Together the family embarks on a plan of deception, and outright lies to mask the disappearance of their mother. I was so dismayed to see this plan being carried out with little concern for the word of God. This is only book two of the series, but as the characters involved are professing Christians I hope to see God dealing with this blatant sin in their lives before the series comes to an end.

Watcher in the Woods is not as cohesive a tale as the first book. Liparulo includes a lengthy scene which appears unconnected from any other events in the series to date. This odd scene seems only to serve as a respite from the relentless action. I am surmising that he will further explain the meaning of this incident in future books and is only starting to weave this thread through the story.

New characters, mysteries and challenges arise but few are solved. The King family learns some rudimentary operations of the portals in their new home, but so much remains to be discovered. I feel that we are barely at the beginning of learning how and why the house and portals work, but this installment hints at a fuller explanation in the near future.

While the ending of the first novel left us hanging with the disappearance of the King's mother, it pales in comparison with the monstrous cliffhanger Liparulo works up to this time. Anyone who has taken a creative writing course can tell you that the climax ought to occur approximately 80 - 90% of the way through a story, leaving the author time to wrap up loose ends and come to a conclusion. You can't expect that sort of formulaic tale telling with this series.

A frenzy of action builds up to the climax, and Liparulo leaves us there with no conclusion. Three dramatic, time-sensitive events occur simultaneously at the end of the novel, bringing stress levels to a crescendo before cuting us off abruptly with the words "NOT THE END". Whew, what a ride. Dreamhouse Kings fans are looking longingly towards the January 2009 release of Gatekeepers, the third title in the series; harbouring the distant hope of a conclusion, an ending, someday.

Okay, this guy named Robert Liparulo decides he can write thrillers. He gives us some great page-turners, then thinks that qualifies him to write YA books, as well. I figure I'll give the series a try, and I speed through book one, "House of Dark Shadows."

Well, this pesky Liparulo fellow leaves me hanging, so I pick up book two right away--which I rarely do when reading through a series--and I race to the end of that one even quicker. Yeah, this writer's that good.

Starting where book one left off, "Watcher in the Woods" churns through more adventures, more conflicts (with police, Civil War soldiers, and WWII tanks), and troubles between the King family members. We also meet a mysterious stranger, who tends to spy on the Kings from the neighboring woods. The Kings have moved into an old home, but find themselves caught in a whirlpool of portals into history. They've lost something very important, and they must figure out how to get this precious thing back without losing their trust in each other.

Although I, just like the story's teenaged Xander, got impatient with the family's plodding approach toward their problem, I began to understand the father's reasoning. Maybe Liparulo just had me tied into too many knots to believe that anyone could approach something so emotional so logically. Either way, "Watcher in the Woods" sucked me along in a few short readings, and left me hanging once again in anticipation for book three, "Gatekeepers."

Phaw! And that Liparulo guy thought he could write YA books. I'll have to keep reading these things until I can prove him wrong.

Sometimes when you know, you know! Right? Like when I first read Robert Liparulo's "Comes a Horseman," I KNEW I'd found a new favorite. You know, forget the fact that he had "Germ" and "Deadfall," along with a couple Young Adult books on the way. I was pretty certain I'd found another author to put near the top of my list. I think he's that good! Ted Dekker endorsed the first 2 books of this series, "Dreamhouse Kings," and Liparulo is creeping right up to Dekker. That's because he's almost as good! That's saying a lot right there. So, how about it? Are you ready for adventure with the King family? And by the way, don't even think about setting a cruise control, the setting is all or nothing!!

If you met the Kings, Xander, David, Toria, along with the mom and dad, you realize that they have a lot going on. Especially with this new house. And in book #2, Mom is missing, and Xander will stop at nothing to find her. And David is just as committed. But somebody else is just as committed, and he's always lurking in the shadows. And right when they meet this stranger, Dad immediately doesn't like him. Adventure, madness and mayhem is the name of this game, but it's really no game to the Kings. But if it is a game, then they have to play along to the rest of the world to assure others that everything is just fine. Does that sound like an adventure you'd be interested in?

Robert Liparulo has caught the attention of many, and he's shocked a lot of people with great writing! Tess Gerritsen, Michael Palmer, James Rollins, Steve Berry, all those authors are bestsellers, and they ALL give Liparulo a seal of approval. I give him nothing but the best, because he IS one of the best today! That's no surprise to me. But the world better watch out, because Liparulo has a ball rolling. And that ball is just rolling faster and gaining amazing speed!! AWESOME!

This story picks up as if it's just the next chapter of "House of Dark Shadows." That's good, if you had "Watcher in the Woods" handy, because you're going to want to go from one to the next asap. That's also the drawback, when you finish "Watcher" you're even more so going to want the next installment - and it comes out in January 2009. Write faster, Bob! Just kidding, I'm sure he's doing everything he can to keep us going.

I have come to really enjoy this family - they bond and grow together throughout this book, and they way they pull together seems to be the antithesis of the disfunctional family we all read about.

The adventures in this book become more recognizable by period and character, and I really look forward to the next 2-3 books as I'm sure you will if you buy these books.

I couldnt wait to read this after reading the first book and was not disappointed in the least. This is another great book for adults as well as the YA crowd. The king family lives in a house with strange rooms that change and take you to different times. This time someone strange is watching the family and wants to run them out to get the house for themselves. Will they be able to figure out what to do before another family member goes missing. Again a must for fans of liparulo and for suspense fans in general. Also go to [...] to enter a contest where robert liparulo might use your idea in a future book in the series.

Jennifer Leigh Sauer has created a masterwork of words and photography that transcends the local tea culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and brings tea culture to a larger audience. By focusing on the Bay Area, she brings the centuries old concept of tea culture to a larger American audience. Her personal adventure in mastering this subject has created more than a local guidebook. Ms. Sauer's loving attention to detail has produced a beautiful book.

Few photographers can match Jennifer's eye for photographing tea. Her guide to tea in San Francisco is as complete a snapshot as you will find for this city that embraces both European and Asian tea traditions. The Way of Tea is a delicious feast for the eyes!

The Way to Tea has lured me into exploring the diverse world of tea and savoring its pleasures. The book's captivating pictures and thoughtful text are steeped with the author's spirit of adventure and appreciation for the world hidden behind cups of tea. The book inspires an awakening of the senses and intellect --an alluring antidote to the world of stressful living and mindless consumption. The Way to Tea is a beautiful way to celebrate the New Year as a gift to oneself or a friend.

What a delightful and well thought out book for Tea House Lovers, The Way To Tea. think the photos are beautifully done and I love the way the book reads. It is a perfect size for living room tables and friends have already picked it up at bookstores as well.I was surprised at how many quality places there are to go in San Fran. A great book for visitors and locals alike! Have already given two as gifts... many thanks

This is an excellent book with wonderful photographs and extremely well written. After reading this book I definitely want to visit San Francisco and visit some of the tea houses. Anyone would miss a great opportunity to learn more about tea and tea houses and history of tea if they do not buy this book.

I've never read a book with so much substance, creativity, imagination, innocence and passion; so much so that I found my self re-reading some passages because I had to, to absorb it all -- the passion, the leaps of imagination, the super creativity of a genius grade brain, and the innovation of metaphors. The photographs play the same role as a nice bottle of wine accompanying a wonderful cuisine, it make it all flow even smoother.

I could not believe how good and hilarious was I was reading. Kalpanik made me not only feel, but also think and smile. Kalpanik has a curious mix of making complex concepts simple and make us live his life and experiences, make us laugh and yet be inspirational.

This book is a collection of three stories, accompanied with lot of professional grade photographs and covers three places--Davis (a small town near Sacramento), San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego. it also covers three different phases in his life.

He is able to sprinkle the description of these places and phases with a lot of humor, making you smile, laugh, guffaw, chuckle, snicker, giggle and crackup.

The First part is at University of California at Davis, which captures the unique experiences of a young man first time in a new country where he is a foreigner and falls in love, written when the author was 21.

The second part is fast forward to 12-15 years later by which time the author has firmly established in the Technology industry and is a Vice President of Technology in a Silicon Valley startup .He is lot more confident and self assured by then. The story humorously covers the life of a technology leader leading a team working at the cutting edge of innovation.

The third part is another 5-8 years later when the author has moved to San Diego and covers his family, including two lovely daughters. They get caught in the infamous wild fires of San Diego.

In all three parts, the author skillfully combines the colorful, vivid words with equally vivid photographs.

His journey is one of hopes and ambitions, of hard work and courage required to realizing those ambitions and tremendous power and insight. It is thoughtful, and yet he is able to infuse it with his humor very naturally!

A good read! Extremely well written and very thoughtful.

Kalpanik's style is fresh, unique, funny (in a dignified way), vivid and clever. For example, the author successfully anthropomorphizes the state of California! While I have not read another of his other books - I look forward to discovering them in the near future

Being an immigrant myself, I read it with the occasional tear in the eye and several bouts of goosebumps. Words are not enough to describe the feelings of transcendence, enlightenment and plain joy I experienced read this narrative.

Definitely a Must Read!

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R333AIEHUTY4IO Writer is a risk taker, who is able to overcome being a foreign born, accented and is still able to assimilate at different places and befriend natives.

The book starts as a sweet story of a foreign born student who is struggling to adapt to a new culture, missing home and trying to find a balance between the demands of his academic life, and who falls in love. This part of the book shows us Kalpanik as a vulnerable foreign born student, a young person. This beginning provides a good background, and serves as a contrast to the rest of the book, wher we see Kalpanik as an confident executive with a carefree attitude.

Kalpanik is an amazing writer with extraordinarily talent for combining simplicity with complexity and sophistication, writing thoughtful and meaningful material into a book which still comes out as light reading!

I've never read a book with so much substance, creativity, imagination, innocence and passion; so much so that I found my self re-reading some passages because I had to, to absorb it all -- the passion, the leaps of imagination, the super creativity of a genius grade brain, and the innovation of metaphors. The photographs play the same role as a nice bottle of wine accompanying a wonderful cuisine, it make it all flow even smoother.

I could not believe how good and hilarious was I was reading. Kalpanik made me not only feel, but also think and smile. Kalpanik has a curious mix of making complex concepts simple and make us live his life and experiences, make us laugh and yet be inspirational.

Kalpanik's style is fresh, unique, funny (in a dignified way), vivid and clever. For example, the author successfully anthropomorphizes the state of California! While I have not read another of his other books - I look forward to discovering them in the near future

Being an immigrant myself, I read it with the occasional tear in the eye and several bouts of goosebumps. Words are not enough to describe the feelings of transcendence, enlightenment and plain joy I experienced read this narrative.

Definitely a Must Read!

This book is a collection of three stories, accompanied with lot of professional grade photographs and covers three places--Davis (a small town near Sacramento), San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego. it also covers three different phases in his life.

He is able to sprinkle the description of these places and phases with a lot of humor, making you smile, laugh, guffaw, chuckle, snicker, giggle and crackup.

The First part is at University of California at Davis, which captures the unique experiences of a young man first time in a new country where he is a foreigner and falls in love, written when the author was 21.

The second part is fast forward to 12-15 years later by which time the author has firmly established in the Technology industry and is a Vice President of Technology in a Silicon Valley startup .He is lot more confident and self assured by then. The story humorously covers the life of a technology leader leading a team working at the cutting edge of innovation.

The third part is another 5-8 years later when the author has moved to San Diego and covers his family, including two lovely daughters. They get caught in the infamous wild fires of San Diego.

In all three parts, the author skillfully combines the colorful, vivid words with equally vivid photographs.

His journey is one of hopes and ambitions, of hard work and courage required to realizing those ambitions and tremendous power and insight. It is thoughtful, and yet he is able to infuse it with his humor very naturally!

A good read! Extremely well written and very thoughtful.

The book starts as a sweet story of a foreign born student who is struggling to adapt to a new culture, missing home and trying to find a balance between the demands of his academic life, and who falls in love. This part of the book shows us Kalpanik as a vulnerable foreign born student, a young person. This beginning provides a good background, and serves as a contrast to the rest of the book, where we see Kalpanik as an confident executive with a carefree attitude.

Kalpanik is an amazing writer with extraordinarily talent for combining simplicity with complexity and sophistication, writing thoughtful and meaningful material into a book which still comes out as light reading!

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/REFLMMXJLP1ZT Writer is a risk taker, who is able to overcome being a foreign born, accented and is still able to assimilate at different places and befriend natives.

Wow, by far one of the best books that I have ever read. I usually do not like history because I prefer to be more proactive and immersed in today's world. But the clarity on our society's current situation that this book gives by examining the roots of the movement to capitalism is incredible and was so worth my time that I had to take a week's vacation off work in order to make sure that I could focus to read this. The writing conveys only one thing - complete clarity into the world today. It is an incredible opus; I loved it.

There is no easy answer to the challenges we humans face in organizing and creating a shared activity to enable the greatest overall productivity and happiness. The evolution of humanity during the early Renaissance years provides the explanation for where and why we are organized in this way today. Understanding this time in this way (through the lens of the economics of that time period) gives a much greater appreciation for the world today that we have constructed. The most core problems of humanity - social mobility, equitable distribution of resources, stability, and collective cooperation, have never (and may never) become solvable. This book explains these dynamics so eloquently that I wish I had time to read it again and again - much like a great adventure novel that as a kid you just wished would never end and felt a real loss once it did and you had to re-emerge into the real world around you.

Braudel is phenomenal in his depth of understanding about how society of the 15-18th centuries operated. I can't recommend it more highly.

In The Wheels of Commerce, Fernand Braudel deftly blended history and economics with the result that neither suffers. His goal in this book, the second volume in his Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, was "to analyse the machinery of exchange as a whole, from primitive barter up to and including the most sophisticated capitalism" (21). In the process of examining this machinery of exchange, Braudel also proposed an ambitious thesis concerning the origins of capitalism. The book itself is a monumental work, an impressive combination of statistical analyses and illustrations from primary sources.

Braudel's first two chapters, "The Instruments of Exchange" and "Markets and the Economy," investigated the role of circulation. In chapter one, he concentrated on the mechanisms by which goods (and money) were traded. Braudel explained that markets and shops were at the bottom of the world of commerce. Markets took place once or twice a week, and shops were open everyday. Fairs, the wholesale markets, were on the higher level. Participants traded large amounts of goods and settled their accounts at the end. Braudel pointed out the importance of fairs in the development of capitalism: "The fair itself created credit" (91). If one merchant had a negative trade balance with another merchant, he would either offer a bill of exchange (a promise of payment on another exchange) or defer payment with interest until another fair. Additionally, these bills of exchange could be sold to a third party if necessary, introducing speculation. The trading mechanisms of the fair were eventually consolidated into the large exchanges of cities like Amsterdam and London, and eventually these exchanges grew into the stock markets. Chapter two investigated the manner in which merchants engaged in trade. Braudel stressed the importance of trading circuits and the use of paper (especially in the form of bills of exchange) for profitability. One of the key ideas in this chapter is the role of distance on price. Price was not set solely by supply and demand, but was also affected by the distance the product had to travel. His insight into system was helpful. "Any capitalist market has a series of links in a chain, and somewhere near the middle there is a point higher and more remunerative than the rest" (193).

The next two chapters, "Capitalism Away from Home" and "Capitalism on Home Ground," dealt primarily with issues regarding production. Chapter three dealt with what could be considered the lower world of production. One of the key issues that Braudel explicated was the role of fixed and circulating capital. The fixed capital that was invested in production was tied up in equipment and other items, while the circulating capital was more liquid and included wages. Braudel also investigated the role of land in production and capitalism, noting: "The great landowner was not a capitalist, but he was a tool and a collaborator in the service of capitalism" (271). He also focused on the peculiarities of production in these pre-industrial years. In chapter four, Braudel investigated the higher world of production. His explanation of the development of banking practices, which would fund production, was illuminating, as was his discussion on the development of companies from private family business to joint stock companies.

Though the book focused on capitalism's development in Europe, Braudel integrated discussions on other geographical locales as well. Braudel did not present Europe as arriving at its capitalist system in a vacuum. He noted the role that other cultures had in aiding the formation of the European model, not just through trade, but also through Europe's adoption of foreign innovation. However, Braudel surprisingly downplayed the importance of double-entry book-keeping to the emergence of capitalism. He asserted that the practice did not spread quickly and was not universally adopted, giving notable examples (574).
Even though successful merchants were found all over the world during this time period (especially in Islamic lands that provided them with a favorable status), full-blown capitalism developed first in Europe. Braudel attempted to provide an explanation as to why this was the case. His thesis regarding this matter is the raison d'ýtre of the book. Braudel believed that three conditions were necessary for the emergence of capitalism. The first was a "vigorous and expanding market economy" (600). Braudel noted that many regions fulfilled this qualification. The second necessity, which hindered many prime candidates, was a strong hierarchy was necessary. This hierarchy encouraged the accumulation of wealth. Landed positions were not hereditary in India, China, and Islamic lands making the nobility's position precarious and the accumulation of wealth difficult. Braudel only mentioned two areas that fulfilled these first two necessities: Europe and Japan. However, Japan closed herself off to world trade, the third necessity. Braudel noted, "Long-distance trading ... was the only doorway to a superior profit level" (601). Braudel's case is a compelling one that must be addressed by anyone investigating this topic.

The Wheels of Commerce is immense, but immensely readable. Braudel portrayed for his reader a heady, exciting Europe, one in which the prime goal was to spend money faster than it could be made. However, even during his descriptions of the dizzying pace at which money was circulated, Braudel did not lose sight of his objective. His scope was large, but he remained precise in both style and purpose, obviating the befuddlement of the layperson (which I confess to being). The book is a balanced work, exhibiting a variety of historical methods. Braudel made extensive use of statistics and mathematical models (the book contains a plethora of charts and tables), but he also included numerous narratives regarding business practices of the time (demonstrating an astonishing knowledge of the primary sources). Because of the attention with which he supported his claims, historians of all stripes can admire this book.

Finally, the student of economic history should not overlook one of the finer aspects of The Wheels of Commerce. This book contains over 120 excellent illustrations from the 15th-18th centuries. The pictures, which vary from woodblock prints to oil paintings, depict the lives of those involved in commerce at the time. Not only do the abundant illustrations make this book a more attractive read, but also they provide the book with a certain level of completeness, giving the reader more tools by which he or she can comprehend the emergence of capitalism in Europe

In the first volume of this series, Braudel sets the stage for life and commerce in the period under discussion. Volume two of Civilization and Capitalism really gets the ball rolling. Or as much as anything ever gets rolling in a Braudel book.

This is fascinating stuff. But it is not easy going. The language is straight forward, but Braudel wanders around his subject, giving us mountains of specifics and following various side currents to their ends. The basic point of the volume is to outline, first, the difference between the market and capitalism, and then to trace the creation of capitalism in the markets centers of Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries.

Unlike many historian of this period, Braudel is more concerned with the world of finance than the world of production, which I find fascinating and innovative. If you care to know how the financiers of Amsterdam dealt with getting a ship in the ocean and bound for America or India, this is the place to look.

While not being an economic determinist, economics is at the center Braudel's work. Unlike many other economic historians, Braudel does take the time to deal with how culture (there a section on fashion in the first volume!) religion and other factors play into the shaping of an economic and social system. This makes for a deeply convincing argument when he demolishes Weber's idea of the protestant work ethic, but is less informed or convincing (and sometimes borderline racist) when he is dealing with non-western cultures.

I appreciate that Braudel didn't assume that by "civilization and capitalism" one can only mean Western Europe, but his sections on the rest of the world I found lacking. They did not have the erudition he exhibits when taking about Western Europe.

I found the book fascinating, but I think Braudel could have done with some editing. This book is not going to lay out point by point the creation of capitalism for you. You'll need to discover the steps through the examples Braudel gives. It's riveting if you're an econ and history nerd, but complicated and meandering work, which could have used a co-author (or a better team of research assistants) to handle the non western areas he covers and a editor to tease out the string of the creation of capitalism that subtly floats through this work.

There are various pretenders to the throne of explaining globalization, such as Thomas Friedman's recent The World Is Flat, but all such efforts seem shallow and pallid compared to the masterwork of the genre, Fernamd Braudel's trilogy Civilization & Capitalism, 15th - 18th Century (The Structures of Everyday Life (Volume 1), The Wheels of Commerce (Volume 2)
and The Perspective of the World (Volume 3)

I do not lightly suggest tackling almost 1,800 pages of reading, but there is simply no substitute (short of a master's degree) if you aspire to a true understanding of global trade's role in the social, political and economic history of our world. It is not a boring read--anything but, for Braudel's depth of research, breadth of knowledge and his appreciation for the limits of current scholarship are matchless. Where authors like Friedman incautiously grind whatever axe they set out, drawing upon work which supports their thesis, Bruadel is ever-cautious about drawing hard-and-fast conclusions from the data he has culled from archives' dusty pages.

What Braudel reveals is a world which has been disrupted by far-reaching trade for hundreds of years. Capital has flowed across the great oceans of our globe for far longer than most people realize, destroying local industries in favor of distant ones in the process. It is impossible to summarize such a rich, vast work, but reading even one of these volumes will give you a deep insight into the long history of globalization, and how entire industries and financial centers have been displaced time and again in the Arab Levant, in Asia, and in Europe. You will also come to understand the rise of European economic dominance, and how it cannot be so neatly attributed to guns, steel and germs, as appealing and powerful as Jared Diamond's thesis may be.

Braudel does not work to create over-arching explantions so much as present the archival facts he so assiduously assembled. (The books were written in the late 1970s; Braudel died in 1985 at the age of 83.) For example, he shows that prosperity, since at least the 1400s if not earlier, is inevitably found in those cities and regions where prices are highest. It is counter-intuitive at first--since shouldn't money go farther where prices are low?-- but the same is obviously true of our era. The most prosperous nations are those with the highest costs, and the poorest are those where prices are lowest.

At a minimum, this sheds light on the centuries-old exodus from rural to metropolis, and on the nature of prosperity itself. I recommend these volumes not just for their vast erudition but for the enjoyment gained from his unparalleled mastery of everyday life in distant lands and distant times. Not much has changed, it seems, except the speed of the ships and the communication between traders.

I don't even LIKE history or economics...but I love this book.

In the course of researching some historical background for an English Lit paper, I ran across two of Braudel's books -- this was one of them.

It was so fascinating that I read the entire book (even though what I needed for the paper was a few pages); and then I went ahead and bought my own copy, plus others by this author.

There's apparently nothing like a good snake bite to get a wise man thinking. And Erec Toso is a wise man.

I most enjoyed Toso's writing about the place he lives and life (and wildlife) in that region. It was also great fun to read about his father. Even when the Arizona landscape feels foreign to me I can relate to some of those family experiences .

I was wanting just a little more from the book, however. Toso makes the case that the land and wild things near Tucson are threatened by encroachment from human development. I'm left wondering what is being done to save those things? Are there positive means that could accommodate growth and preserve the wild things? Without knowing more I'm just left with a bleak feeling about Tucson's future.

I chose Zero at the Bone for a future book club discussion and, after reading it, am not disappointed in that choice. Erec Toso's language goes from being very vivid to being extremely provocative and frustrating. I think that's an outcome of reading someone's stream of consciousness. But, it's well worth the read. He hits home with me and brings all his stories into context, though sometimes slowly. Also, I love the medical stuff but doubt that everyone would. Finally, I like Erec's interpretation of the importance of snakes in our environment.

There is much to learn from Zero at the Bone -- I highly recommend it!

The book is a trip to preserve the wilderness of the great American Southwest. As a foreigner living in Arizona, I felt this couldn't be a better present to folks at home that are curious about my experiences in the Southwest. Be prepared to be swept of your feet enjoying the smells, the adrenaline, the somber colors of sharing life with the Sonoran desert.

Great book to use in the classroom!

"Zero at the Bone" has ruined my life. His writings are the words, sentences and expressions that I would like to be able to use to express my thoughts, feelings and experiences. However, I know I will never be able to do it, as well as he has.

"Zero" is the story of Erec Toso, a 40ish Tucson writing teacher and runner, who received a life threatening rattlesnake bite that affected and changed his life (for worse and better). It was one of the best written and most engaging books I have ever read. I have highly recommended it to all my male-female angst friends, aging athletes, Tucsonans, and lovers of fine writing (that covers everyone I know).

"Zero" is actually 3 books: First, before the bite, he writes of the male-aging angst: "My heart grows hard when certain subjects come up. It bars entry, switches on the security system, lets threats trigger the lockdown of emotions under siege.....There are questions I am not strong enough to entertain, that are too big to digest......" I call this part of the book - "Telling life How It Is Before a Snakebite".

Then, there is adventure and mystery, as we suffer through the actual physical trauma of the injury with him, not knowing how this will ultimately affect Erec or his family or if he will even survive.

Finally, it becomes philosophically descriptive of how his life changed and actually benefited from the snake-bite.

I can identify with Toso; He lives where I live, thinks my thoughts, shares my concerns about the world and the environment. The glaring difference is that he is able express these feelings.

And in addition to "ruining my life", his writing may have also "saved" my life by helping me realize I'm leading MY LIFE now. "This is not a practice run; there are no do-overs."

If you are scanning the reviews, trying to decide whether or not to buy this book, I can tell you this: If you enjoy reading literary nonfiction, just tap that "One Click" button and get the book on its way to you. Having read a preview of the book before it was released, I looked forward to reading it with great anticipation. In fact, when it arrived in the mail, I pulled it out, opened to the first page and was so taken with Toso's use of language that I began to read it aloud--with no audience other than my cat. I read the first 12 pages that way. There are those who make good storytellers because they know how to weave a compelling tale, follow an ebb and flow of suspense and pathos. But the true masters are those who can render those same elements using language that sings. Toso has made his mark as a master. Let's hope he's working on a second book--but that he needn't entertain Death to produce it.

As the Fleet Intellegence Officer of Admirals Kimmel and Nimitz Edwin Layton was in a unique position to see and to understand what was going on regarding the battles at Pearl Harbor and Midway. This welcome reprint to the 1985 book has to be considered one of the more definitive books of the couple of hundred on the subjects.

Layton was a language officer stationed in Japan before the war to learn Japanese. He followed Japan and the Japanese developments closely. He was at Pearl before the attack and remained there throughout the war. He was on the Missouri at the Japanese surrender.

There are a series of revisionist history books that propose such things as Roosevelt and Churchill conspiring to let the Japanese attack at Pears. Yes there is evidence that we had some intelligence pointing to the Japanese attack. But you have to look carefully at how much material there was, how many messages had been intercepted, how few had been translated and you come up with the basic understanding that it just hadn't been put together. A lot like the situation with 9/11, Monday morning quarterbacking is much easier than being in the midst of the game.

Layton was there, he knew what Kimmel and Short knew, indeed he had briefed them with the material on hand. Could they have been better prepared, yes, Layton says, if Admiral Richmond K. Turner had forwarded the information. But like any inter-departmental power struggle, Turner held the information to himself.

I was also surprised by the relatively little animosity shown towards the Redman brothers who bounced Rochefort and Safford out. Indeed Layton points out that the do it themselves style of Rochefort and Safford probably wouldn't have done a very good job of managing the Navy Radio Intelligence activities that grew to almost 8,500 people by the end of the war.

All in all, a must read for anyone interested in what happened at Pearl and Midway.

And I was there.
This is a great book by one who was there, Adm Layton. He was Adm Kimmels intelligence officer at Pearl Harbor.
He shows how the incompetence of the Navy in Washington led to the surprise attack at Pearl, by the Navy, specifically adm Stark and Kelly Turner, not giving Pearl the vital information they had about Jap intentions, but refused to give Pearl. The Navy also had 2 intelligence groups fighting for the information, and control, evaluating, and dissemination of the information. This too sabotaged the intelligence efforts, and does to this day.
Gen Marshall is also responsible for the debacle. He was reprimanded, but Roosevelt set aside the Congressional verdict on him.
Kimmel was judged not guilty of any wrongdoing by the Navy, but found derelict by Congress, a tragic miscarriage of justice, due to lies under testimony by Stark, and Turner.

The Redmon brothers are faulted too for ousting the most brilliant Navy intelligence officer, Rochefort, who correctly guessed the time and location of the Midway battle.

Another tragic aftermath of Pearl, was the loss of Wake Island. Kimmel had a carrier task force sailing to resupply and relieve the garrision that was under attack by the Japs. This would have surprised the Japs and could have sunk many Jap ships, saved Wake Island, and kept open the supply lines to the Phillipines. Unfortunaely, Kimmel was relieved, and Adm Pye replaced him Pye lost his nerve and cancelled the mission.

MacArthur is noted, as being in charge of the Phillipines, and being under orders to attack Formosa with his B17's when Pearl was attacked. He had a 9 hour warning after Pearl had been attacked, and had been told to attack. It was not until years after this book was published that the records of why Mac did nothing in the Phillipines were found. He was paid $650,000 by Pres Quezon of the Phillipines to do nothing, as he wanted to be neutral. MacArthur lost the Phillipines, a far more important strategic outpost than Pearl, as well as half the B17's we had, and 1/5 of our fighters, on the ground, just as what happened at Pearl, only 9 hours later, after he had multiple phone calls from Washington to attack the Japs.

The battle of Guadalcanal and other Pacific battles is also gone into in some detail
It was Nimitz, not Mac Arthur that devised the island hopping idea.
A great book by a hero who was there.

First and major portion of book covering Pearl Harbor is excellent. However, after Layton's death, the book was continued from his notes and descriptions of campaigns after Pearl Harbor suffer in quality by comparison.

Before you jump on some revisionist books about Pearl Harbor, like Stinnet's Day of Deceipt, you should get it from the horses mouth! Layton, et al, tell a little known side of the war in the pacific. His opinions of some famous naval personalities like Stark and R.K. Turner will really have you thinking about how war is run when powerful, ambitious officers are running the show. It's a shame that lives had to be wasted while the U.S. got its act together to finally win the war in the pacific, but Layton's tale will give you a new perspective and supports much of what was previously written, like Prang's "At Dawn We Slept", about the debacle of Pearl Harbor and the genius that followed at Midway. Buy it!

Edwin T. Layton served as Fleet Intelligence Officer for Admirals Kimmel and Nimitz. He, along with the other members of station Hypo, were assigned the task of breaking into Japan's secret codes, especially their JN-25 cypher. Through exhausting efforts by its members, they were finaly able to penetrate enough of the JN-25 code to make reasonable assumptions as to what the Japanese navy was planning. "Magic" was the term used for the intercept and decryption of these secret codes.

However, no decoding was actually done at Pearl Harbor, because there was no "Purple" decoding machine there. All intercepts had to be sent to Washinton for decryption, and Hawaii relied on Washington for their information. Layton's thesis is that Pearl Harbor was denied vital intelligence which, if issued in a timely fashion, could have alerted Pearl Harbor to the impending attack which occurred on December 7, 1941. Although I agree with some of his thesis, I also believe that the Pearl Harbor commanders made terrible mistakes of their own which also contributed to the unpreparedness of Pearl Harbor.

One message that Washington failed to send Pearl Harbor which I believe, along with Layton, could have alerted the fleet to the attack was the so-called "bomb plot" message. In a nutshell, this message divided Pearl Harbor into several sections and placed ships in each section; almost like laying an invisible grid over the harbor. Of all the messages that Pearl Harbor failed to receive, this was probably the most important.

However, with this stated, I also believe that the commanders made grievous errors of their own. On November 27, 1941, a "war warning" message was sent to both commanders at Pearl Harbor. Both seemed perplexed and unsure of the course of action to be taken. Why was this? Both Admiral Kimmel and General Short were high ranking members of the military, yet they both dragged their feet when they received this message. Short simply ordered defense against sabotage instead of ordering an all-out alert, while Kimmel failed to order any further long-range patrols, plus he didn't order the battle force to sea. They seemed incapable of making any independent judgement of their own. Instead, they needed to be told directly what to do. These omissions are unforgivable.

Inter-service rivalry also played a role in the failure. As pointed out by Layton, there was very little inter-service cooperation or sharing of messages, so most of the time, one usually didn't know what the other was doing. Further, during the Midway operation, a rivalry betwen station Hypo and the Washington-based intelligence unit nearly cost us the battle, but fortunately, Layton and commander Joe Rochefort were able to convince Nimitz that Hypo, not Washington, was correct.

I thought this was a good book, but I disagree with Layton's assertion that Kimmel and Short were scapegoats and had no clue what was happening. Granted, there was some intelligence that was definitely denied to them, but they should have been able to interpret events on ther own, namely the war warning message. This book is a good counter-argument to other works, such as "At Dawn We Slept". The information about the battle of Midway is especially interesting, plus the story of the codebreaking activities was well-done.